Daily Life Objects Research Articles

Haptic and visuo-haptic impairments for object recognition in children with autism spectrum disorder: focus on the sensory and multisensory processing dysfunctions

Dysfunctions in sensory processing are widely described in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), although little is known about the developmental course and the impact of these difficulties on the learning processes during the preschool and school ages of ASD children. Specifically, as regards the interplay between visual and haptic information in ASD during developmental age, knowledge is very scarce and controversial. In this study, we investigated unimodal (visual and haptic) and cross-modal (visuo-haptic) processing skills aimed at object recognition through a behavioural paradigm already used in children with typical development (TD), with cerebral palsy and with peripheral visual impairments. Thirty-five children with ASD (age range: 5–11 years) and thirty-five age-matched and gender-matched typically developing peers were recruited. The procedure required participants to perform an object-recognition task relying on only the visual modality (black-and-white photographs), only the haptic modality (manipulation of real objects) and visuo-haptic transfer of these two types of information. Results are consistent with the idea that visuo-haptic transfer may be significantly worse in ASD children than in TD peers, leading to significant impairment in multisensory interactions for object recognition facilitation. Furthermore, ASD children tended to show a specific deficit in haptic information processing, while a similar trend of maturation of visual modality between the two groups is reported. This study adds to the current literature by suggesting that ASD differences in multisensory processes also regard visuo-haptic abilities necessary to identify and recognise objects of daily life.

Flexible Textile Antennas for 5G Using Eco‐Friendly Water‐Based Solution and Scalable Printing Processes

AbstractFlexible textile antennas are important for wireless communication within the expansion of 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT), as it allows for their integration in daily life objects. However, achieving these functionalities in textiles is challenging because of limitations in the electronic performance, flexibility with scalable fabrication process. This paper presents two flexible textile antennas for wearable and non‐ wearable devices compatible with 5G technology created by printing highly conductive silver nanoparticle inks. Two textile substrates are explored, as the dielectric component, a 3D polyester, and a natural origin fabric, burel. The processes used are cost‐effective and scalable, with the antennas designed to operate at 3–3.5 GHz, maintaining their return loss performance even under bending deformation and washing cycles. By transferring the optimized devices into clothes and wall covering, a detailed analysis with experimental measurements of the textile‐based antenna for different operation scenarios is introduced. The work highlights the suitability of these antennas for wearable applications and their alignment with green wireless technologies, contributing to the advancement of sustainable wireless communication systems.

DGU-HAO: A Dataset With Daily Life Objects for Comprehensive 3D Human Action Analysis

DGU-HAO: A Dataset With Daily Life Objects for Comprehensive 3D Human Action Analysis

SHPIA 2.0: An Easily Scalable, Low-Cost, Multi-purpose Smart Home Platform for Intelligent Applications

Sensors, electronic devices, and smart systems have invaded the market and our daily lives. As a result, their utility in smart home contexts to improve the quality of life, especially for the elderly and people with special needs, is getting stronger and stronger. Therefore, many systems based on smart applications and intelligent devices have been developed, for example, to monitor people’s environmental contexts, help in daily-life activities, and analyze their health status. However, most existing solutions have drawbacks related to accessibility and usability. They tend to be expensive and lack generality and interoperability. These solutions are not easily scalable and are typically designed for specific constrained scenarios. This paper tackles such drawbacks by presenting SHPIA 2.0, an easily scalable, low-cost, multi-purpose smart home platform for intelligent applications. It leverages low-cost Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices featuring both BLE connected and BLE broadcast modes, to transform common objects of daily life into smart objects. Moreover, SHPIA 2.0 allows the collection and automatic labeling of different data types to provide indoor monitoring and assistance. Specifically, SHPIA 2.0 is designed to be adaptable to different home-based application scenarios, including human activity recognition, coaching systems, and occupancy detection and counting. The SHPIA platform is open source and freely available to the scientific community, fostering collaboration and innovation.

Removal of Motion Artifacts in Capacitive Electrocardiogram Acquisition: A Review.

Capacitive electrocardiogram (cECG) systems are increasingly used for the monitoring of cardiac activity. They can operate within the presence of a small layer of air, hair or cloth and do not require a qualified technician. They can be integrated into wearables, clothing or objects of daily life, such as beds or chairs. While they offer many advantages over conventional electrocardiogram systems (ECG) that rely on wet electrodes, they are more prone to be affected by motion artifacts (MAs). These effects, which are due to the relative movement of the electrode in relation to the skin, are several orders of magnitude higher than ECG signal amplitudes, they occur in frequencies that might overlap with the ECG signal, and they may saturate the electronics in the most severe cases. In this paper, we provide a detailed description of MA mechanisms that translate into capacitance variations due to electrode-skin geometric changes or into triboelectric effects due to electrostatic charge redistribution. A state-of-the-art overview of the different approaches based on materials and construction, analog circuits and digital signal processing is provided as well as the trade-offs to be made using these techniques, to mitigate MAs efficiently.

Fonógrafos ambulantes en tiempos de don Porfirio: Hacia una historia popular de los sonidos (Ciudad de México, 1894–1903)

At the end of the nineteenth century, talking machines stopped being inaccessible to the popular sectors and became objects of daily Mexican life. It was in this context that dozens of individuals, aware of the popular predilection for recorded music and interaction with sound technologies, decided to request authorization from the city council of Mexico City to rent out their phonographs on public roads. They would receive a penny for each phonogram listened to by their clients. The need of these popular entrepreneurs for an attractive and varied repertoire prompted the emergence of shops and small recording studios in the city. This article attempts to reconstruct this forgotten chapter in the business and cultural history of Mexico. To do this, we will not only reveal the identities of the phonographers, the objects they rented, and the places they traveled but also the accusations they faced for the spread of hearing diseases and the reproduction of obscene songs. In general, this research highlights the methodological relevance of an approach that rethinks the past, having as its central axis the study of the processes of commercialization and consumption of sounds in the daily life of cities.

An Effective Head-Based HRI for 6D Robotic Grasping Using Mixed Reality

People with two-arm disabilities need to grasp various densely placed objects in their daily life. However, current arm-free human-robot interfaces (HRIs), such as language-based and gaze-based HRI, are difficult to effectively control the robotic arm to complete the above task. To achieve this task effectively, we innovatively propose an arm-free HRI based on Mixed Reality (MR) feedback and head control, which enables people to give full play to their intelligence in correcting robot perception errors and determining grasp decision-making. MR feedback makes 3D visualization of robot perception results and virtual grippers aligned with real grippers. Head control ensures these disabled people can flexibly and effectively control the gripper's 6D pose. In experiments, we densely place 15 objects of different sizes and shapes from daily life, including transparent and specular objects, such as a measuring tape, transparent bottles, and a charging head, which are grasped by 10 subjects using our HRI. Our experiment results and comparison results show that our HRI can more effectively complete the task, has the adaptability for unseen object grasping, and has high point cloud error tolerance. Presentation video is available at <uri xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">https://youtu.be/QO72XT8BYGs</uri> .

Art of Use of Exclusive Language in the Epic of Khing Ju of the Ede People in the Central Highlands, Vietnam

The Ede community in the Central Highlands, Vietnam has created famous epics, such as Dam san, Khing Ju, Xinh Nha, etc. These are oral works of art, the result of the past collective composition process, which is attached to and directly serves different activities in community life. The Ede epic is a literary genre with high integrity, in addition to its literary and linguistic value, it also contains precious documents about culture, history, ideology, and indigenous people. Based on the theory of the art of exaggeration, combining survey, statistics, and classification of sentences using the art of exaggeration in the epic Khing Ju of the Ede people in the Central Highlands, Vietnam, the article provides an overview of the model. exaggerated structural model in the Khing Ju epic, explaining the elements in the model, such as The element is exaggerated; Exaggerated aspect factor; Exaggerated relational factors; Magnifying factor; Magnified enlargement factor. Simultaneous analysis of objects participating in the exaggerated structure, such as people; animals, and plants; some objects in daily life. Thereby clarifying the value of the exaggeration method for the content of the work and expressing the cultural characteristics of the community.&#x0D; &#x0D; Received: 10 January 2023 / Accepted: 25 February 2023 / Published: 5 March 2023

Generalized fringe order correction based on phase shift segmentation for absolute phase retrieval

We present a fringe order correction method for various absolute phase retrieval algorithms. In fringe projection profilometry based on absolute phase retrieval (FPP-APR), the mismatches tend to be easily generated around the 2π discontinuities or edges of the wrapped phase due to the defocus and noise of the system. In this paper, a staggered wrapped phase with a phase shift of 2π / N segments the calculated wrapped phase into a left-wrapped phase and a right-wrapped phase. Then, a statistical method independently determines the fringe order of each closed-wrapped phase without the 2π discontinuities. The experiments demonstrate that the proposed fringe order correction has the generality and simplicity for the existing absolute phase retrieval and performs high robustness to measure the colorfully complex objects of daily life.

A graph-based approach for representing addresses in geocoding

Addresses, one of the most important geographical reference systems in natural languages, are usually used to search spatial objects in daily life. Geocoding concatenates text with georeferenced coordinates and is an essential middleware service in geographic information applications. Despite its importance, geocoding remains challenging with only text as input, hindering text matching in reference databases without the specific text. To optimize the storage and retrieval of addresses in databases, this work proposes a graph-based approach for representing addresses. The approach clarifies the characteristics of relative concepts, designs a graph structure and identifies modelling strategies. Furthermore, a schema is proposed to perform address matching and toponym disambiguation using an address graph. The model is implemented on a graph database, and experimental tasks are employed to demonstrate its effectiveness. The approach provides a new reference for developers when creating address databases.

Upādāna and Its Influence on Bhava

Regarding the multiplicity of consequences, kamma is widely stressed more as a significant role where the diverse lives of beings are conducted in saṃsāra with reference to Mahākammavibhaṅga Sutta (M III 203). Although there are several research on kamma and rebirth, less attention has been touched on how upādāna plays an influential role more than kamma in which living-beings are differentiated, and saṃsāra is prolonged. As a cause and effect relationship, upādāna and kamma, according to Paṭiccasamuppāda, are a connection between twelve links. It is discovered that dependent on upādāna there arises bhava such as “upādānapaccayā bhavo” (S II 2). Ordinary people with various clinging or attachment to animate and inanimate objects in daily life, generate a range of actions that result in diverse future existence. Since their particular attachments are diverse, so are their actions and the effects they experience in saṃsāra. Hence, the fact is that the variety of resultant life, which is said to be diverse for beings in circle of existence, springs from the clinging of the individuals. This article reveals how upādāna is more influential than kamma in the differentiation of living beings and prolongation of saṃsāra. The current work is an attempt mainly based on Paṭiccasamuppāda.

Kinematic analysis of impairments and compensatory motor behavior during prosthetic grasping in below-elbow amputees.

After a major upper limb amputation, the use of myoelectric prosthesis as assistive devices is possible. However, these prostheses remain quite difficult to control for grasping and manipulation of daily life objects. The aim of the present observational case study is to document the kinematics of grasping in a group of 10 below-elbow amputated patients fitted with a myoelectric prosthesis in order to describe and better understand their compensatory strategies. They performed a grasping to lift task toward 3 objects (a mug, a cylinder and a cone) placed at two distances within the reaching area in front of the patients. The kinematics of the trunk and upper-limb on the non-amputated and prosthetic sides were recorded with 3 electromagnetic Polhemus sensors placed on the hand, the forearm (or the corresponding site on the prosthesis) and the ipsilateral acromion. The 3D position of the elbow joint and the shoulder and elbow angles were calculated thanks to a preliminary calibration of the sensor position. We examined first the effect of side, distance and objects with non-parametric statistics. Prosthetic grasping was characterized by severe temporo-spatial impairments consistent with previous clinical or kinematic observations. The grasping phase was prolonged and the reaching and grasping components uncoupled. The 3D hand displacement was symmetrical in average, but with some differences according to the objects. Compensatory strategies involved the trunk and the proximal part of the upper-limb, as shown by a greater 3D displacement of the elbow for close target and a greater forward displacement of the acromion, particularly for far targets. The hand orientation at the time of grasping showed marked side differences with a more frontal azimuth, and a more "thumb-up" roll. The variation of hand orientation with the object on the prosthetic side, suggested that the lack of finger and wrist mobility imposed some adaptation of hand pose relative to the object. The detailed kinematic analysis allows more insight into the mechanisms of the compensatory strategies that could be due to both increased distal or proximal kinematic constraints. A better knowledge of those compensatory strategies is important for the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders and the development of innovative prosthetics.

Hand grip support for rehabilitation and assistance: from patent to TRL5.

In the last decades, the continuous increase in the number of the vast cohort of chronic patients that constantly need medical assistance and supervision, and the widespread lack of therapist has brought to an increased interest in the role of medical technologies in rehabilitative programs and assistive scenarios. Current clinical evidence in rehabilitation demonstrates that there is an important and increasing demand for innovative therapeutic solutions to recover the hand functions to prevent patients to need assistance in performing daily life activities. This works describes the pathway from patent to TRL5 of a device to support hand grip actions and interaction with daily life objects. E-KIRO is based on the use of electromagnets, which are able to attach/detach interactive objects equipped with a ferromagnetic plate. Five end-users used the device and scored it with excellent usability based on the System Usability Scale.

@thermogramer: Thermal Imaging as a Tool for Science Communication and E-Learning in Social Media

The COVID-19 pandemic boosted the presence of thermal cameras in our society. These devices are becoming cheaper and smaller and can even be plugged in our smartphones. Therefore, soon enough everybody will have access to these instruments. Thermal cameras have been widely used for industrial, research and/or academic purposes. Now, in the rise of the online era, this work proposes and assesses a new application for such devices as visual engaging tools for science communication and e-learning in social media. Here, we introduce @thermogramer as a science communication channel that shows multispectral (optical and thermal) images of daily life objects to explain the science behind different topics of social interest (climate change, emerging technologies, health, and popular traditions). This young project is already present in social media, press, TV and museum’s exhibitions, and its designed content have been already useful for new inexperienced users, science educators and communicators.

Preliminary findings: Preferences of right-handed people for food images oriented to the left vs. right side

It is well known that aesthetic preferences regarding lateral biases are influenced by left/right reading habits, as people who read text left-to-right have been shown to prefer left-to-right oriented images. However, preferences regarding objects that are more strongly associated with actual objects in daily life and the movements used to interact with such objects are less well understood. Images of foods may trigger cognitive pathways related to grasping and bringing food to the mouth, which may influence preferences regarding such images. Participants were presented with successive pairs of food images and asked to choose the preferred image. They were also presented with pairs of object images that are not easily graspable, such as landscapes; these pairs were differentiated in the same way as the food images. Each pair consisted of the same images but at a different angle. Participants preferred images of foods that were oriented in a direction that made it easier to grasp and bring to the mouth with the right hand (p < 0.001). In conditions involving landscape images that were difficult to grasp, there were no significant differences in participants' preferences (p > 0.05). From this study’s results, it can be concluded that the orientation with which foods are presented influences preferences, and that people may prefer images in which foods are oriented in a manner that makes them easy to grasp and bring to the mouth.

Polymer composition assessment suggests prevalence of single-use plastics among items ingested by loggerhead sea turtles in the western mediterranean sub-region

The ingestion of plastic is becoming a major concern for various species and particularly for marine turtles across the globe. The loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) was recently chosen by the European Commission as a bio-indicator for plastic pollution within the Mediterranean basin. We further investigated which items this key species is more prone to ingest, following the standardised Marine Strategy Framework Directive protocols. Moreover, we integrated to this protocol the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, which allowed us to determine the polymer type of each item. We analysed samples from 226 sea turtles from 2008 to 2017 in two areas of the western Mediterranean sub-region (sensu MSFD). In the Lazio area we found a frequency of occurrence of plastic ingestion of 78.33%, while in Sardinia 41.79%. The analysis of the litter categories, among all individuals, highlights a prevalence of user-sheet (Use-She; 69.13%) and user-fragment plastics (Use-Fra; 20.84%). In addition, the polymer analysis showed a dominance of polyethylene (65.98%) and polypropylene (26.23%). As a result, by looking at other works that have investigated polymer types and items sources, we are able to infer that 77.25% of the objects ingested by the C. caretta individuals are attributable to disposable daily-life objects managed in an improper way. Therefore, C. caretta apart from being an efficient bio-indicator for plastic pollution, highlighting spatial and temporal concentration differences, it could also be used to verify the effectiveness of the Single-use Plastic Directive (EU 2019/904).

Students’ Length Measuring Estimation Skills Related to The Daily Life Objects

This research aims to explore the secondary school sixth and seventh graders’ length measuring estimation skills developing activities related to the daily life objects. The study is in a qualitative multiple case study model. The universe of the research consisted of the sixth and seventh graders. The sample of the research consisted of 85 students, who were studying at a secondary school in sixth and seventh classes in 2 (two) state schools determined with the purposive sampling method in the 2018-2019 educational year. The maximum variety was ensured for the class level, gender, and mathematics achievement scores; voluntariness for the easily accessible situation. The data were obtained with the scales and semi-structured interview forms prepared during the research process and analyzed descriptively. The research results suggest that the length measuring estimation skills of the secondary school sixth and seventh graders relevant to the daily life objects can be developed with the activities that will develop the students’ prior knowledge and skills.

Gender, Identities, and Material Culture in the Italic Peninsula: Burial Practices and Loom Weights in Perspective

AbstractThis paper discusses the complex relationship between material culture and gender studies from a methodological point of view, with the aim of contributing to discussions in the field of Classical archaeology. First, we provide a few historiographical benchmarks for key epistemological developments, while evidencing the methodological difficulties inherent in the variability of our interpretations of burial practices and data. Then, in a second section, a case study focuses on simple objects of daily life. Discussing approaches inspired by gender studies, and considering the place of loom weights, we wish to tackle the presumption of textile work as an eminently female activity. The aim of this paper is to suggest a more nuanced and fluid approach to gender in relation to material culture.

Identifying and Mitigating Phishing Attack Threats in IoT Use Cases Using a Threat Modelling Approach.

Internet of things (IoT) is a technology that enables our daily life objects to connect on the Internet and to send and receive data for a meaningful purpose. In recent years, IoT has led to many revolutions in almost every sector of our society. Nevertheless, security threats to IoT devices and networks are relentlessly disruptive, because of the proliferation of Internet technologies. Phishing is one of the most prevalent threats to all Internet users, in which attackers aim to fraudulently extract sensitive information of a user or system, using fictitious emails, websites, etc. With the rapid increase in IoT devices, attackers are targeting IoT devices such as security cameras, smart cars, etc., and perpetrating phishing attacks to gain control over such vulnerable devices for malicious purposes. In recent decades, such scams have been spreading, and they have become increasingly advanced over time. By following this trend, in this paper, we propose a threat modelling approach to identify and mitigate the cyber-threats that can cause phishing attacks. We considered two significant IoT use cases, i.e., smart autonomous vehicular system and smart home. The proposed work is carried out by applying the STRIDE threat modelling approach to both use cases, to disclose all the potential threats that may cause a phishing attack. The proposed threat modelling approach can support the IoT researchers, engineers, and IoT cyber-security policymakers in securing and protecting the potential threats in IoT devices and systems in the early design stages, to ensure the secure deployment of IoT devices in critical infrastructures.

Automatic detection of burial mounds (kurgans) in the Altai Mountains

The Altai Mountains are one of the most impressive and valuable archaeological areas in the world. Kurgans (burial mounds) of ancient civilizations, which are scattered across the vast Altai area, are an exceptionally valuable source of information for archaeology. These precious archaeological resources, which sometimes have been preserved intact in the permafrost underground for over two millennia, are now under various threats, such as natural disasters, farmland expansion, touristic development, and most notably global warming. A detailed map or inventory of the mounds is essential but is still not available. In this study, we test the deep convolutional neural network (CNN) technique for automatic detection of stone mounds from high-resolution satellite images in four regions in the Altai Mountains. We propose three improvement techniques to increase the performance of off-the-shelf object detection methods that are originally proposed for daily-life objects. Our results demonstrate that it is feasible to apply CNN to detect stone mounds, and the detection results are good enough to capture their spatial distribution. CNN-based object detection can largely narrow down the search area for archaeologists in yet un-surveyed regions, and is therefore useful for preparing field survey campaigns and directing archaeological fieldwork. We also applied the method to an un-surveyed Altai Mountain area and successfully discovered stone mounds that are yet undocumented. Our method can potentially be applied to construct an inventory for all stone mounds present in the whole Altai Mountain region.